Stephan Schwab - Product Developer Factsheet

Available for product development work on a 1099 basis through Caimito Services LLC. I help product companies ship better software by combining systems design, product thinking, and hands-on delivery. I bring 40+ years of hands-on software development experience and professional client work since 1986.

I regularly step into unfamiliar stacks and become productive quickly. The point is not prior exposure to every syntax detail. The point is understanding the system, constraints, risks, and product goals well enough to make sound design decisions and move a team toward shipping.

How I Plug In

I work best as a senior hands-on product developer who can raise the level of execution around an existing team. That can mean clarifying architecture, reducing delivery risk, improving development practices, accelerating modernization, or helping a team use AI effectively without damaging code quality or product coherence.

AI-Assisted Delivery

I have extensive practical knowledge in AI-assisted development and what is now called agentic coding. I use AI as a force multiplier for research, design exploration, coding, refactoring, and codebase discovery, while keeping architecture, quality, and product direction under experienced human control. The goal is not more code. The goal is faster learning, safer change, and better delivery integrity.

For teams that want to improve how they use AI, I also offer a focused 3-Day AI Programming Intensive on AI pairing, test-first development, refactoring, continuous integration, explicit architecture, and verification habits that make AI-assisted work reliable in production.

Relevant Background

Most of my client work has been confidential, as is normal for contract product development. Public examples I can discuss include Navigator, which turns short daily team log entries into weekly strategic intelligence for leaders, and Nilo Assistant, an AI assistant for business users that helps with communication, summaries, reminders, proposals, and visual content. Other work spans product delivery, ERP and e-commerce, IoT and automation systems, and earlier client work in finance, insurance, telecom, and infrastructure.

My own public products are living proof that I build what we now call SaaS and PWAs, while most client work needs to stay hidden. Across decades of work there is hardly a class of software problem I have not seen directly, short of classic mainframe environments. Earlier in my career I also built software products, hosted applications, ran FidoNet and UUCP based mailboxes, created desktop applications for GEM/3 and Windows in C/C++ with the Win32 API, built VBX components, created DEO (Documents of Embedded Objects, similar in concept to Microsoft OLE2), and co-founded one of Germany's early Internet service providers. I worked in an iterative, feedback-driven style long before that approach was broadly named Agile, and learned early that low-code/no-code approaches were a dead end for serious software product work.

I also write publicly about software delivery, architecture, AI-assisted development, and product work. Current articles appear on caimito.net in English, German, and Spanish, and earlier publications remain available on this website.

Things I've Used

Current and recurring: Java, Spring Boot, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Vue, React, HTML, CSS, REST APIs, messaging, event-driven systems, SQL of many kinds, NoSQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, ORMs of many kinds, CI/CD, trunk-based development, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, TDD, ATDD, BDD with Cucumber, pair programming, DevOps, AI-assisted development, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, LLM, RAG, agentic coding, product development, systems design, architecture, legacy modernization.

Product and platform work: SaaS, PWAs, ERP and e-commerce systems, IoT and automation, Navigator, Nilo Assistant, RAutomation for Windows.

Earlier depth: Modula-2, Pascal, BASIC, Visual Basic, VBA, Assembler, COBOL, PHP, Perl, dBase, GEM/3, C, C++, Win32 API, VBX components, Make, SCCS, various Unix flavors, FidoNet, UUCP, DEO (Documents of Embedded Objects), author of the first commercial website directory in Germany, pre-release Windows NT 3.1.

Working Model

Typical role: senior hands-on product developer, modernization driver, or technical delivery stabilizer
Contract basis: 1099 via Caimito Services LLC
Optional team enablement: AI Programming Intensive for teams adopting AI-assisted development
Languages: English, German, Spanish
Public product examples: Navigator | Nilo Assistant
More detail: Resume | Client portfolio
Contact: sns@caimito.net